Police: Girl spent the night in outbuilding

Officers, volunteers combed her neighborhood

A 10-year-old girl who spent the night alone in a barn with about 10 donkeys on the South Side was found this morning just before 8 a.m. after a team of Spokane police officers and volunteers combed her neighborhood throughout the night.

The girl disappeared from her home in the 2300 block of South Myrtle Street and was found in the 2500 block of South Cherry Lane, more than a mile from her home. The search involving the city’s available officers and 12 senior volunteers started about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.

Officer Ryan Snider said the girl was found after she emerged from the barn at daybreak and the property owner spotted her. The owner then flagged down an officer who was in the area searching for her, Snider said.

The girl apparently has a liking for animals and went walking in search of deer or other wildlife. After she was found, she told Snider she had caught a frog but the frog got away.

As darkness fell Sunday, the girl told Snider that her eyes adjusted to the darkness and that she walked into a barn because of the donkeys that were there, and she bedded down among them.

She also told Snider that animals love her.

“She didn’t seem at all scared,” Snider said, adding she was apparently unaware of the danger of being out alone at night.

The search effort involved going door to door and combing the neighborhood, said Officer Teresa Fuller.

Officers brought out an armored vehicle with heat sensing devices as part of the search.